


Absolutely Smitten

by ShortInsomniac



Category: Falsettos - Lapine/Finn
Genre: Cordelia was a bartender, F/F, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, I haven't decided yet, Period-Typical Homophobia, Queer Themes, charlotte is a big gay, its just how these two met and them becoming lovers, queer is used so just letting yall know, the others aren't mentioned, this might get angsty later, this takes place before the musical does
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-05-08
Updated: 2018-05-08
Packaged: 2019-05-03 23:59:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,369
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14580501
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ShortInsomniac/pseuds/ShortInsomniac
Summary: How the two lesbians met and became lovers.Set in 1978, so before the musical events take place.





	Absolutely Smitten

**Author's Note:**

> I will try and update as often as I can, my Tumblr is unlikely--lovers so you'll see update info there as I continue to write more

March 2nd, 1978,  
New York.

* * *

 

Charlotte was a good doctor.  
Actually _no_ , she was an **amazing** doctor; she was smart, quick on her feet and had a very level head on her shoulders. Although just because she was a great doctor didn’t mean she got the respect she deserved at times. It was fair to say that her job was very stressful. If it wasn’t the everyday stress of it all, it was some of her male co-workers were more than often not as pleasant to deal with as she would have liked them to be. She took it in stride, however, trying her best to shrug it all off her shoulders and move on. Although someone can only take so much.

Today was a good example.  
It hadn’t been a particularly bad day so to speak, but it was enough to make the doctor march right off to a bar after her long shift. She knew it wasn’t the smartest idea to go out for drinks when she had a 7am shift the next day, but she felt like she deserved some time to relax and not have to be professional for a hot second. Charlotte walked alone along the streets of New York her work uniform still on as she made her way over to the closest bar that she could find. Luckily there was one not too far away from the hospital, about a 10-minute walk away. Which she was glad about because that meant she didn’t have to walk a ridiculously long distance just to grab a cocktail. As she strolled up the building she took note of the outside appearance; it was small? Smaller than most bars she had been to, but it looked clean and quiet so she wasn’t complaining too much. With a huff she pushed the door open to the small establishment, the bell ringing over her head as the smell of liquor and cigarette smoke hit her nose as she entered the joint. As she expected it was pretty much empty aside for a few men sitting alone on bar stools speaking to each other about god knows what. Another man was standing near the entrance of the place, smoking what seemed to be a cigar.

Charlotte scrunched her nose at the smell of smoke that hit her face as she opened the door, she turned to make a face of disgust at the man blowing the smoke her way. He smirked and rose an eyebrow, his eyes making his way down her body as he was checking her out. Charlotte scoffed and rolled her eyes, she ignored the man and made her way over to the bar where she took a seat on one of the stools farthest away from anyone else. She was too busy staring at the liquor bottles in the back self to notice a woman make her way over to her.

“What will it be?” said someone from behind the bar.

Charlotte shook herself out of her gaze on the bottles to turn to see a cute blonde woman behind the bar giving her a charming smile. It was fair to say that Charlotte was immediately taken off guard by the pure fact that the woman was absolutely gorgeous; her hair worn in curls that framed her face wonderfully, her makeup was simple but still made her look very feminine. She was leaning against the bar in a casual almost flirty way, which helped to show off her cute outfit that she was wearing. Nothing dramatic, just a simple white blouse with high waisted jeans. Charlotte didn’t realize she was staring for an unusual amount of time until the woman spoke up and asked again.  
“Hey, hun? I said what will it be?” the woman spoke up again, a small laugh escaping her as Charlotte shook herself out of the small daze she was in.

“Uh- yeah... sorry, I’ll have a Pink Lady?” she managed to get out before the other nodded and turned around to start up her order. Charlotte was a bit out of her element here, she wasn’t expecting to see such a cute girl at this bar. Her face was a bit flushed as she had realized how silly she must have looked, that flush though soon turned into anxiety as she was worried about people were seeing her now. The nerves that now flooded her system made her really want to just chug the drink down and leave for risk of being outed as queer in a place she wasn’t too familiar with. Her nerves seemed to ease once the woman came back and started mixing her drink in front of her.

“Long day at work?” the blonde asked her gaze focused on pouring different liquids into something behind the bar. Charlotte only nodded in response as the other seemed to continue “I guessed that was the case, it must be hard being a doctor yeah?” Charlotte chuckled a bit at that statement before commenting “You have no idea, I love it but damn. It gets really fucking stressful sometimes” Charlotte joked as she began to glance back over to where the man at the door was standing, he had seemed to have left. Thankful, Charlotte turned back over to the woman to see her set down the drink in front of her. Charlotte smiled and thanked her as she picked up the drink and began taking a sip from the glass. It tasted good.

“I wouldn’t doubt it being stressful, but I bet the pay is nice yeah?” the woman spoke up again, causing Charlotte to nod in response. “Oh yeah the pay is wonderful, the money is needed especially if you live in New York.” The woman seemed to get a good laugh out of that comment, causing Charlotte to blush again her eyes falling down to her drink. The laughter died down after a second but a smile still remained on the woman's face causing Charlotte stomach to flutter as she realized how she really liked how the woman’s smile made her feel.

“You’re telling me!” the woman paused before reaching her hand out across the bar “I’m Cordelia by the way,” she said with a grin and an open palm. Charlotte smiled back taking her hand and giving it a quick shake. “Charlotte” she responded as she pulled her hand away as quickly as she shook it. Cordelia continued to smile, taking back her position of leaning on the bar as she spoke. “That’s a nice name. You from here?” the blonde asked causing the brunette to raise an eyebrow at the question. “Yeah? I was born in Brooklyn? Why do you ask?” Charlotte asked back, causing the other woman to chuckle sightly. “Just haven’t seen you around here before, not many people show up at the joint besides the regulars,” Cordelia answered as she turned to look over at the group of men chatting away. Charlotte took another sip of her drink her gaze also falling across towards the men not too far from her. “Well I just started working a the new hospital ten minutes over from here, and this was the first bar that I saw that didn’t look disgusting. So I figured I’d give it shot” Charlotte continued, causing Cordelia to hum as a reply before turning back to face the woman. “I’m sure you’ve been very busy then,” she said as  
began to tap her nails against the counter. Charlotte looked down at the woman’s hand before responding again “I have been, but I don’t mind it too much. If I did I wouldn’t have become a doctor” she said as she breathed out a small laugh. Cordelia nodded as stopped tapping her nails on the counter, seeing that the action could be pretty annoying for her customers.   
  
“Why did you choose to become a doctor then? If you don’t mind me asking?” Cordelia questioned her eyes now seemly focused on Charlotte. Charlotte placed her glass down on the bar, she thought for a moment. Wondering how she could explain her reasons without sounding sappy or generic, after a brief moment she looked up at the other and began to speak softly not wanting to draw too much attention to herself. “My parents mostly. They wanted me to pick a good career for myself, so you know the usual. _However_ , if I was going by the _real_ reason why I wanted to go into medicine than I would say: to save lives. I like being helpful and making sure people live another day. Something about all is so wonderful that it keeps me going. So I guess in the end it’s worth all the stress it puts me through” She said a small smile on her face, pride showing in every aspect of her expression. Cordelia’s head tilted as she rested her head on the palm on her hand, her smile warmer and her eyes softening as the other spoke “That’s really wonderful… and noble! Most people would just say they do it for the money”

Charlotte chuckled, “Yeah I know a lot of people who would say that.” she spoke as she swirled the drink in her glass, Cordelia nodded, her eyes looking over at the men speaking a few barstools over. “People will do anything for greed.” She said almost sadly, a small frown appearing on her face as she looked onward at the men laughing and speaking loudly of some sort of financial gain that they all had just made that day. Charlotte frowned back, her eyes falling onto the bar counter “Unfortunately yeah; it seems the world has become a lot less kind.” she paused, her brows furrowing a little as a small silence took over the two women. Cordelia sighed causing Charlotte to shake her head slightly her gaze returning back to the blonde as the other began to speak up again, “But you can’t focus on that too much. It prevents you from seeing all the good the world still has to offer! That’s what my mom always used to say” the beamed seeming rather cheerful in that statement. Charlotte couldn’t help but smile at the optimism coming from the blonde, she offered a small nod in agreement as she raised her glass slightly off the table. “I could drink to that” Her comment caused Cordelia to laugh again, which in turn brought back the small butterflies that Charlotte was feeling earlier. She pushed them aside as she began to start up another conversation. The carried on for a while as the two then fell into a conversation after conversation with ease, they had seemed to talk about nothing and everything for hours only stopping when Cordelia had to walk over and refill beers. The two clicked immediately laughing and talking until Charlotte caught wind of the time.

  
“Oh, my. You were supposed to have closed an hour ago.” She said as it had been way past one in the morning and the woman still had an early morning shift that day. Cordelia cursed under her breathe slightly as she rushed to apologize for letting the time get past her. Charlotte laughed it off as Cordelia raced to grab a washcloth and began wiping down the bar counter. Charlotte hopped off the stool quickly only to begin digging for her wallet from her purse and pulling out a few bills. Cordelia looked up and smiled waving a hand “No. No please this is on me” Cordelia spoke up from the middle of the bar, Charlotte was surprised at that comment, her head shaking as she continued to pull bills out of her wallet. “No. please I insist,” Cordelia said again a grin still on her face, Charlotte decided not to argue about it. She quickly put her wallet back in her purse and made sure to grab her coat off the bar stool. Once she had everything the two women exchanged goodbyes, which ended in Charlotte promising she would be back again tonight so they could finish their conversation that was just cut short. Cordelia joked and said it was a date, which caused Charlotte's cheeks flush slightly. Thankfully Cordelia didn’t notice as she had turned her back to grab some cleaning supplies from under the shelves of booze.

Charlotte quickly made sure she grabbed all of her belongings before then turning to leave, she made sure she smile and waved goodbye to Cordelia before she exited the bar to make her way back out into the streets of New York. Cordelia returned the wave and before she knew it she got back to work. She continued to clean in silence before she looked back over to where Charlotte was sitting before and noticed a small slip of paper on the counter where the woman was sitting. The woman rose an eyebrow and made her way over to the paper resting on the counter as curiosity had gotten the best of her. She picked up the paper carefully opening it to find a two twenty dollar bills folded inside along with phone number on the slip of paper. Cordelia smiled and pocketed the money in her pocket before noticing that it was hiding a small message written underneath the number.

> “you really think I wasn’t gonna at least tip? :)  
> Thanks for the drink and the talk! call me sometime!”

It got a small chuckle out of Cordelia as she pocketed the slip of paper along aside the cash in her jean pocket. She had to admit that doctor was something special, she didn’t know why but she really enjoyed talking to her. Maybe it was due to the fact that she was the first person that has set foot in that bar that was worth talking to. Regardless she was glad that she was able to make a new friend today, and to top it off the woman was cute so it was a win-win. Cordelia now with a new spring in her step continued to clean up the bar for closing. Maybe this boring old’ job won’t be so bad after all? She thought to herself as she continued to sweep the bar floor.  


**Author's Note:**

> notes and advice is appreciated!


End file.
